Five GPRA Measures

Apply to RCRA

The Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response rolled out five Government Performance and Results Act

(GPRA) measures in the ìLand Preservation and Restorationî section of the

Agencyís 2003 Strategic Plan that will

apply to RCRA and Superfund cleanup

sites. The Strategic Plan serves as the

Agencyís road map for the next five

years, lays out EPAís long-term goals,

and will guide EPA in establishing the

annual goals needed along the way.

The five measures that apply to RCRA are:

ï Site assessment;

ï Human health exposures under control;

ï Ground water migration under control;

ï Remedy selection; and

ï Construction completion.

The purpose of these measures is to

move the cleanup program forward

toward final remedies, in addition to

continuing to make progress with controlling unacceptable human health and

ground water exposures from site contaminants. Tracking progress toward

achievement of these five measures will

begin in FY2006. These measures will

need to be achieved by a new baseline

list of RCRA facilities that is currently

being compiled by the states and regions, and will be finalized by the end of

FY2004. The goals that the new

baseline list of RCRA facilities must

meet for these measures by the end of

FY2008 are:

ï Assess 100% of new RCRA baseline

facilities.

ï Control all identified unacceptable

human exposures from site contamination to at or below health-based

levels for current land and/or ground

water use conditions at 95% of new

RCRA baseline facilities.

ï Control the migration of contaminated

ground water through engineered

remedies or natural processes at

80% of new RCRA baseline facilities.

ï Select final remedies at 30% of new

RCRA baseline facilities.

ï Complete construction of remedies at

20% of new RCRA baseline facilities.

Construction completion is a benchmark used to show that all significant

construction activity has been completed, even though cleanup goals

may not have been met.

The remedy selection and construction

completion measures are to be applied

to the entire site. In order to get credit for

having met the remedy selection or

construction completion measure for the

FY2008 goals, a facility must have

selected a site-wide remedy or completed construction of a site-wide remedy. Partial site remedies will not count

toward meeting these two FY2008 goals.

The new baseline list of facilities being

assembled by the states and regions for

the FY2008 measures will contain all

high-ranked corrective action facilities

that have not been officially referred to

and accepted by the CERCLA program.

The Strategic Plan is available at

www.epa.gov/ocfo/plan/plan.htm.

RCRA Corrective

Action

News

A Record of Success

March 2004

Whatís Inside

Five GPRA Measures .... 1

Apply to RCRA ñ

Strategic Plan sets

goals to be achieved

by FY2008.

ROSA Team Wins ........... 2

Award ñ

Team wins Friends of

OSW Award for

developing training

modules.

Training Modules ........... 2

Available ñ

Six new ROSA training

modules are ready to

download.

New ìReady for .............. 3

Reuseî Program ñ

Region 6 has developed

a program for remedial

progress.

Final Completion ............ 3

Guidance ñ

New guidance covers

two types of corrective

action completion.

RCRA Brownfields ......... 4

Lessons Learned ñ

New report outlines

lessons, challenges

of 5 pilots.

2004 National .................. 4

Conference ñ

Corrective Action

Conference set for

May 11-12 in Orlando.

1

Office of

Solid Waste
ROSA Team Wins OSW Award

RCRAís Results-Oriented Streamlined Approaches (ROSA) Team received a ìFriends of

OSW Awardî in November 2003 for its work to

develop a new training initiative in partnership with

program implementers and stakeholders. The

two-year initiative resulted in six training modules

that can be downloaded from the Internet.

In January 2001, EPA announced several Corrective Action Reforms, one of which was developing

a new training initiative as a follow-up to the

successful RCRA Corrective Action Workshop on

Result-Based Program Management. One of the

topics stakeholders have routinely requested

deals with ìinnovative administrative approachesî

ó the mechanisms that promote action, such as

innovative orders, permits, use of existing orders

and permits, voluntary agreements, and approaches that have been responsible for improving a working relationship and the pace of corrective action.

To tap into the wealth of expertise and experiences

in the Corrective Action community, the team sent

an e-mail in February 2002 requesting interested

individuals to participate at several levels. Initially,

they wanted a core group of 10 or so people to do

some initial brainstorming, help develop course

content, and possibly serve as instructors. They

then wanted a larger group to help the team review

the draft materials. They envisioned a series of

conference calls, followed by a formal working

meeting, and ultimately leading to a pilot offering of

the course, followed by implementation in the fall.

This workgroup, led by Karen Tomimatsu, Office of

Solid Waste/Corrective Action Programs Branch,

was called Results-Oriented Streamlined Approaches (ROSA).

During the course of the year, their strategy

changed. After some initial brainstorming, the

workgroup of EPA Regional, state, and industry

representatives came up with the following six

training modules: Tailored Oversight; Targeted

Data Collection; Streamlined Orders; Facility Lead

CA Approaches (presented in two perspectives by

Regions 3 and 6); Institutional Controls; and

Communications, Trust, and Mutual Respect.

During 2002-2003, self-directed workgroups on

each topic held a series of conference calls, and

developed and prepared PowerPoint presentations, several of which were relayed over conference calls for the entire ROSA workgroup.

As a result of the teamís hard work and dedication, all training modules were presented at the

RCRA National Meeting on August 12-15, 2003, in

Washington, DC.

ROSA Training Modules Now

Available

Six new training modules for Results-Oriented

Streamlined Approaches (ROSA) are now available on the Internet and can be downloaded and/

or printed from under ìCourses.î

The training modules, all available in PowerPoint

and PDF files, are:

1. ìCorrective Action Tailored Oversightî

2. ìTargeted Data Collectionî

3. ìCorrective Action Streamlined Consent Ordersî

4. ìFacility Lead Corrective Action Approachesî and

ìFacility Lead Corrective Action Approaches ñ

Flexible Risk-Based/Performance-Based

Cleanups Using the Region 6 Corrective Action

Strategyî

5. ìThe Use of Institutional Controls Under the

RCRA Corrective Action Programî

6. ìThe Need for Good/Frequent Communication,

Respect and Trust for Implementing a Successful RCRA Corrective Action Projectî

Congratulation to the ROSA Team

Members of the ROSA team were presented

with a ìFriends of OSW Awardî on November

12, 2003, for their achievement in developing

Results-Oriented Streamlined Approaches

training modules for stakeholders. Congratulations to the members of each workgroup:

Tailored Oversight Ernie Waterman, EPA Region 1

Catherine Smith, EPA Region 1

Deana Crumbling, TIO

Targeted Data Lael Butler, EPA Region 4

Collection David Reisman, EPA/ORD

Rich Nussbaum, State of Missouri

Streamlined Orders Phil Page, EPA/OSRE

Debbie Goldblum, EPA Region 3

Robert Greaves, EPA Region 3

Tom Krueger, EPA Region 5

Rhett Nelson, EPA Region 5

Facility Lead Jennifer Shoemaker, EPA Region 3

CA Approaches Rick Ehrhart, EPA Region 6

Arnold Bierschenk, Region 6

Rich Nussbaum, State of Missouri

Communications, Jim Moore, State of Illinois

Trust and Mutual

Respect

2
Region 6 Develops ìReady for

Reuseî Program

EPAís Region 6 has developed the new ìReady

for Reuseî program, a measure of remedial

progress in the corrective action process that is

now part of EPAís National Land Revitalization

Initiative. The program recognizes when all or a

portion of a property has been characterized and

remediated to the extent that it will remain protective of human health and the environment for

specified types of uses. Rather than intending to

be a clean-closure approach, it encourages

cleanups that will quickly support protective

redevelopment opportunities.

Under this program, EPA and/or the states have

the discretion to provide a Ready for Reuse (RfR)

determination that the property can support

specified types of current and future uses and

remain protective, based upon the exposure

scenarios evaluated for the property. The RfR

determination is an environmental status report

that documents a technical determination about

protective types of uses for a property; thus RfR

determinations do not provide any legal rights or

legally enforceable commitments, and do not

include any statements about EPAís enforcement

intentions or any partyís liability regarding a

specific property.

Depending on the intended future use of the

property, a RfR determination may indicate that

corrective action at the property is finished. If

characterization and remediation have been

performed to support an unrestricted land use,

then no additional investigation and remediation

would be anticipated. If the characterization and

remediation have been performed to support an

industrial land use, no additional cleanup would be

anticipated unless there is a change to a different

land use in the future.

In order to determine that a property is Ready for

Reuse, either EPA or the state regulatory authority

will evaluate the propertyís historical and current

data; determine if the investigation is adequate;

evaluate the remediation efforts to determine if

environmental conditions at the property are

protective for current and anticipated land use;

and ensure that there are mechanisms in place to

maintain and monitor necessary institutional

controls.

More information on Ready for Reuse is available

on the Internet at www.epa.gov/earth1r6/

ready4reuse.

Final Completion Guidance

Issued

EPA has issued a ìGuidance on Completion of

Corrective Action Activities at RCRA Facilities,î

which describes two types of completion ñ Complete without Controls, and Complete with Controls ñ and provides guidance on when each type

of completion determination is appropriate. It also

provides guidance on procedures for EPA and

authorized states when making completion

determinations, and discusses completion determinations for less than an entire facility.

As described in the guidance, a Complete without

Controls determination means that the areas

subject to the determination do not require any

additional remedial activity to ensure that the

remedy remains protective of human health and

the environment. Under the guidance, it would be

appropriate to make a Complete without Controls

determination where:

ï A full set of corrective measures has been

defined;

ï The facility has completed construction and

installation of all required remedial actions; and

ï Site-specific media cleanup objectives have

been met.

As described in the guidance, a Complete with

Controls determination would be appropriate

where all of the above criteria are satisfied, and all

that remains to ensure that the remedy remains

protective of human health and the environment is

performance of required operation, maintenance,

and monitoring actions, and/or compliance with

and maintenance of any institutional controls.

The Federal Register notice, which includes the

final guidance, can be found at www.epa.gov/

epaoswer/hazwaste/ca/resource/guidance/

gen_ca/compfedr.pdf.

3
Report Outlines Lessons

Learned in RCRA Brownfields

Prevention Pilots

The major challenges and lessons learned in five

RCRA Brownfields Prevention Pilot projects are

described in a new report, RCRA Brownfields

Prevention Initiative Pilot Programs 2001: Summary Report. A potential RCRA Brownfield is a

RCRA facility or portion of a RCRA facility that is

not in full use, where there is reuse potential, and

where reuse of that site is slowed due to real or

perceived concerns about actualy or potential

contamination, liability, and RCRA requirements.

The RCRA Brownfields Prevention Initiative links

the EPAís Brownfields Program with the RCRA

Corrective Action Program and other Agency

cleanup programs, as well as state cleanup

programs, to help communities address contaminated, often blighted properties that may stand in

the way of economic vitality.

The report includes a Site Description, Pilot Goals,

Current Status, Challenges, and Lessons Learned

for these sites: Pharmacia & Upjohn Company in

North Haven, Connecticut; Union Carbide Caribe,

LLC, in Punta Guayanilla, Puerto Rico; BP Wood

River, in Wood River, Illinois; City of Muskegon

Heights, Michigan; and Approved Oil Services/Milt

Adams, Inc., in Commerce City, Colorado.

The lessons learned from these pilots have

affected both the RCRA program and broader

revitalization efforts across EPA programs. The

pilot projects have served as a testing ground for

innovative tools and approaches to encourage

cleanup and reuse. They have also served as a

laboratory where EPA, states, local municipalities,

and other stakeholders have developed new

revitalization strategies.

RCRA Brownfields Prevention Initiative Pilot

Projects 2001 is available on the Internet at

www.epa.gov/swerosps/rcrabf/pdf/rcra2001.pdf.

2004 National Corrective

Action Conference Set

The 2004 National Corrective Action Conference

will be held on May 11-12 at the Sheraton Safari

Hotel in Orlando, Florida/Region 4 ó the Heart of

the South!

One of the primary purposes of the National

Corrective Action Conference is to encourage

RCRA-regulated industries, consultants, state

regulators, individuals in the community, and EPA

regional project managers to discuss frankly the

issues and actions that affect corrective action

progress.

Conference sessions will focus on the 2005 and

2008 GPRA goals, streamlining RCRA reforms,

state cleanup programs, EPA Regional success

stories and strategies, industry partnerships, and

other topics.

This yearís conference will also include a reception where EPA Assistant Administrator Marianne

Horinko will recognize several companies that

recently took the Environmental Indicator Pledge.

Information and registration forms will soon be

available at http://www.nationalcaconf.com.

Registration for the conference is FREE!

Lessons Learned from RCRA

Brownfields Pilots

Here are some examples of lessons learned

from RCRA Brownfields Pilots, described in

RCRA Brownfields Prevention Initiative Pilot

Projects 2001:

ï Early engagement of stakeholders has led to a

positive attitude toward working with the owners and

EPA. (Pharmacia & Upjohn Company)

ï An advocate to champion and shepherd the larger

reuse project, beyond RCRA cleanup concerns, is

needed. (Union Carbide Caribe)

ï Parceling large RCRA sites can greatly accelerate

cleanup and reuse. (BP Wood River)

ï Creative approaches can be found to address liability

concerns. (City of Muskegon Heights)

ï Leadership is needed from both the regulators and the

regulated community. (Approved Oil Services/Milt

Adams, Inc.)

4

Office of Solid Waste and

Emergency Response (5303W)

EPA 530-N-04-001

www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/ca/

March 2004